musings of life and laughter...composed between loads and loads of dirty laundry (which we will attempt to avoid airing here)...
stories of trials and faith, of falling and rising, and of the steadfast arms of our strong, strong God.

wife. mom. adjunct professor.
we homeschool. i'm a little bit OCD. i love math. bright colors and geometric designs make me drool. we live with a medical rarity, and Jesus saved his life. through that, Jesus is changing us. The american dream and status quo is overrated...and sometimes just plain wrong. our lives, our family, our careers, our faith are all now filtered through a new lens-- thank you Jesus. welcome to our crazy. feel free to take some of it with you, we have plenty to go around.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.-- Jesus Christ

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

i know.

so my last post was a little bit "woe is me" i guess, but it was and is how i feel, truly. a couple of you left sweet comments, and i'm gonna roll with one of those today. one of our dear nurses, who so lovingly even put a "welcome back ridge" note on ridge's marker board when we were readmitted to the hospital last time, commented, "for i know the plans i have for you, declares the Lord....." jer. 29:11.

touche. :)

i'm sad. i'm sad about work. i'm sad that sawyer had some disgusting drainage, cough, fever, nastiness all weekend, and now we all seem to have it, except no fever so far in any of us, THANK YOU JESUS! i'm sad ridge has all this nasty snot everywhere and has trouble sleeping and breathing because of it, and i'm sad his diapers are dark again, and i don't understand why his hgb isn't really changing much, but i'm glad of that. i hate feeling like we live on the edge and not really being able to make set in stone plans with anyone. i hate living with a bag packed, with my trunk full of stuff we'll need at the hospital. i hate that all my makeup, hair stuff, meds, whatevers, are in a bag and i get ready, in my own house, every day, like i am at a hotel, or the hospital or something bc none of my things are even where they go, bc if i put them away, i will most likely forget something when we do have to go back to the hospital.

i know the plans i have for you.

i don't like how ridge's medicine bag/pump falls to the ground every time i lean over. i don't like how he wants to crawl but isn't yet, and even when he can, he will only be able to go 3 feet before he's out of room, bc that's how long the tubing on his line is. i wonder if things will ever be normal. i know things will get better, but will they ever just be NORMAL!?!? i hate wondering if i should take ridge to the doctor, because if he has a fever, we automatically go into the hospital, so i can't wait until he has a fever to ever take him to the dr....but sometimes that's the only way you know something is up....so how do i know if the congestion warrants a trip to the doctor? he won't take meds for the congestion, bc usually babies don't take meds for that....he doesn't have an infection anywhere yet, that we know of, bc he doesn't have a fever....he can't take antibiotics w/o going to the hospital bc he will start bleeding on them. i have no idea how to know what to do!

i know the plans i have for you.

sometimes nothing we do can get ridge to stop crying. with a normal baby this would be annoying. with ridge, it's annoying, and it causes you to question what's going on- is he bleeding? is it mlt related? is he sick? do you think he has a fever? did you remember to give him that medicine earlier? it's always something. then there's sawyer, who is one of the lights of our lives, and who takes this all in stride like a true superhero. but from our side of it, we worry about him being neglected and left out and us missing things bc of ridge and all our focus on him. will he be any worse for the wear by the time this is over one day? will my focus today result in a wayward child in the future? does he know how much we love him? does he feel loved?

i know the plans i have for you.

will we be able to pay all these medical bills? what if this lasts for years-- will we still be able to pay those bills? will we be able to have another baby one day? will we be able to buy a bigger vehicle when that time comes? even if we have the money, will we be able to go on vacations? does any of that even matter? will i ever be able to focus more on giving to others than worrying about us? sheesh.

i know the plans i have for you.

i could go on and on bc my mind and body are so full of worries. but i don't want to seem like debbie downer here, because that isn't my point.

my life is good. my life is also a crisis. and a gigantic question mark. what's your life? what are you facing? we all have giants, so to speak- what's yours? are you worrying about how to pay whatever bill? you don't understand why life seems to have dealt you a bad hand? school/work/dating/marriage/money/debt/friendships/needs/whatever....is just ruling your life? i hear ya. i get it. i'm right there with you. but maybe we all need to take a step back...and breathe...and i'm talking to myself here, so no offense need be taken....maybe some of those circumstances in your life were brought about by poor choices, and i have certainly made my fair share of those.....and if that's the case, you, and i, we need to get that junk out of our lives. but maybe, just maybe, you have fallen on hard times for whatever other reason. i don't know why. you don't know why. but the weight of your concerns and struggles is heavy enough to be tangible maybe. i certainly can understand that. but i can't make sense of it for you. you can't either. not yet.

i know the plans i have for you.

"for i know the plans i have for you," declares the LORD. plans to prosper you and not to harm you. plans to give you hope, and a future.jeremiah 29:11

4 comments:

You don't get to choose the circumstances, but you do get to choose your heart - I love listening to the stories from your heart. You give to people every day you write. Sadly I imagine that someday you will be able to give advice and comfort to another mother in your very same position. Maybe the bright spot in her day will be that you have walked the road ahead of her.

Thanks for the post....it brought tears to my eyes, this is the verse that I have been clinging to the last few weeks since my miscarriage....I have had all those fears and doubts, why me? why are all my friends pregnant right now? why did I have to lose twins, when I know I will probably never get pregnant with twins ever again? and over and over, Jer. 29:11, has been popping up, in cards, in a sermon, and now your post. I am praying for you daily and sweet little Ridge...I can't imagine what you are going through having a sick baby....and yet you still encourage others, like me, with your faith. Thanks Alisha!

Thank you for this blog. I needed that message so much. My circumstances are NOTHING compared to what you and so many others are going through. Nothing compared to people in Haiti, or anywhere else around the world. Yet, I still worry about so many of the things you listed on there. I worry about how to pay for my kid's college fund when I can't even pay back my student loans, when I don't know where the money for us to eat on is going to come from and how we are going to continue to get propane to warm our house. I worry about way too much stuff instead of letting God take care of it, the way He ALWAYS does. Thank you again, Alisha, and I hope that you are blessed soon.